Robbie Swinnerton serves up morsels from the foodiest city on the planet

Craft Beer Market

12/27/2013

My column today in The Japan Times is a year-end round-up. Not necessarily the best of the year — most of those have already featured in columns over the past twelve months — but the best of the rest. Expect to see more about them in print (or on this blog) in 2014.

11/18/2013

Kanda-Ogawamachi – home to the excellent Kagiroi – is an old-school low-rise carousing district with plenty of izakaya action. It's not so big, but there are enough small alleys to make it feel like it's a demi-monde all to itself.

Come and stroll it with me…

Ogawamachi is a short stroll from the Jimbocho Crossing – which means (counter-intuitively) that it's actually closer to Jimbocho Station than to the subway station called Ogawamachi.

And that means you will also be in striking distance of Kiwamiya Ramen...

03/19/2013

And no better way to welcome the blossoms than a brew of Sakura Beer. It's from Tazawako Beer in Akita Pref., and it's made with a yeast that is (somehow) extracted from cherry trees — not clear about the science here, so if anyone can contribute...

Bottom line, though, is that it's excellent — and totally seasonal, of course — and so is Craft Beet Market Jimbocho, which is where we supped on it.

As always, there were plenty of good comestibles to go with it. Starting with a nice fresh salad of new-season shungiku (chrysanthemum) greens...

…and then the lamb tsukune — actually more like a giant Indian seekh kebab, with plenty of cumin in that jumbo patty.

Great stuff — in fact, worth a lingering close-up...

What a buzzy fun place it is, Craft Beer Market. Just don't go along expecting a pub. It's not, it's closer to an izakaya in feel. You go for the food as much as the (excellent and well-priced) drink. If the tables are full, you just have to wait — and most nights you won't be the only people on the waiting list.

Here's the relevant section of the menu...

Here's a link to my piece for CNN... What's changed since then is that as of last month, Craft Beer Market Jimbocho is now open on Saturdays. It's just as popular, though.

And hold your hats for the third Craft Beer Market. Before the summer is out!